Richard Hammond details horror crash on The Diary of a CEO
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Over the years Top Gear has seen an array of hosts front the popular BBC vehicle show, although the longest-running trio so far has been Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Being part of the show from the start, Richard revealed Top Gear originally had a set of rules on how bosses wanted the series to be, which didn’t last very long.
The three hosts decided to leave the BBC series in 2015 as they embarked on a new adventure away from the broadcasting channel with their Grand Tour show on Amazon Prime.
For 13 years viewers tuned in each year to watch the three men take part in an array of challenges, races and dangerous stunts.
Although the show nearly had a very different look as Richard Hammond revealed the team sat down to list out Top Gear’s rules before the first series began.
Appearing on Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast, the former presenter confessed the bosses wanted the car series to highlight the real world.
He confessed: “We just thought we’d make a car show, I remember the conversation in White City BBC HQ.
“It was before James (May) joined but the rest of us were all in place and weirdly some of the people we still work with now, we were all in that room.
“We all said, ‘right, these are the grand rules of Top Gear, it’s about the real world, cars that people really buy, no supercars, no foreign travel, we’re only going to drive proper cars that people buy in this country’.
“Then, that didn’t last very long at all, we realised that’s not what people wanted. Not what we wanted to make, we never made it with any science or calculation, we just made the best car show we could.”
However, the future of the long-running show currently remains undecided following the crash of Freddie Flintoff last year.
Freddie joined the BBC series in 2018 after the exit of Friends star Matt LeBlanc.
In December 2022, the former cricket star was involved in a serious collision when shooting at Surrey’s Dunsfold Aerodrome.
The 45-year-old was in an open-top car with a crew member when the vehicle flipped over and slid along the track.
As a result of the collision, which has been described as a “freak accident”, Freddie was airlifted to hospital where he suffered from severe facial injuries and broken ribs.
Following the crash, BBC Studios Health and Safety team, which is separate from the show’s production, has launched an investigation.
Speaking to The Sun about what the investigation could mean for the future of the show, a source commented: “The report is imminent. Only when it is finished and examined will a decision be made on whether Top Gear filming can restart.
“The show’s future depends on what the report says. It’s as simple as that.”
Freddie isn’t the only star from the show who has been hospitalised after a crash as Richard Hammond once spent five weeks in hospital.
In 2006, the 53-year-old crashed a jet-powered Vampire dragster vehicle going at 320 mph.
Speaking about the accident in the podcast with Steven, Richard confessed he didn’t know how fast he was going as there wasn’t a speedometer in the vehicle.
He said: “What had happened was the front tyre had blown, the car had skewed right and was going off-road but it was still doing 290 mph as it started to roll.
“I pulled the lever for the parachute, which is all that mattered to me months later when I finally was aware of what was happening, I needed to know if had I done that.
“I looked at my children and thought, ‘If I’ve nearly denied you a father for the rest of your lives because I’m an idiot and had done the wrong thing I wouldn’t forgive myself’.
“But, I did do the right thing, it was just never going to stop it.”
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